Philosophy Portal Year In Review 2024/25
The Portal, Writing for (a) First Cause, Philosophy of Right, Logic for the Global Brain, Rosy Cross, Christian Atheism, Wake Festival, Deleuze and Analysis, and More...
The New Year is here. Today I find the New Year as an important structural moment for reflection on what has passed, what has been achieved, and what might be possible moving forward. Such mental reflections are necessary to stay committed to thinking on the scale of long-term conceptual mediation in a world that is hyper-immediate and attentionalist, desperately drowning in its own excess.
Philosophy Portal is officially a three-year old, and as any three-year old, it is learning how to play with other children its own age, and tell stories about what its path has been and what that path means for its future.
For the past few years, I have led “Year In Review” videos that function to bring together some of the core collaborators from the previous year, as well as collaborators whose projects might overlap in interesting ways in with Philosophy Portal in the year to come. This year, I am releasing the biggest such effort in that direction. However, this “Year In Review” is not only structuring important conversations inspired by the past year, and oriented towards the new year, but also showcasing some behind-the-scenes aspects of Philosophy Portal that will only be familiar to its members and course participants.
What you will find below are two 12-hour (roughly) videos organised to introduce you to various aspects of Philosophy Portal’s current mission, core thinking, historical work, and future projects.
Video 1: Philosophy Portal Year-In-Review (Part 1)
Peter Rollins: Philosophy at Wake (conversation)
Carl Hayden Smith: Living in a Transhumanist Age (conversation)
Carl Hayden Smith: Hyperhumanism (presentation)
Eliot & Kirsty Rosenstock, Daniel Coughlan, Rebecca Prentice: What Is Living Philosophy? (conversation)
Terence Blake: A Life In Philosophy (conversation)
Terence Blake: Approaching Deleuze’s “What Is Philosophy?” (presentation)
Joris de Kelver: Real of the Commons (conversation)
Joris de Kelver: Commons/Cooperatives (convo/presentation)
Dimitri Crooijmans, Quinn Whelehan, Jason Bernstein: Philosophy as a Way of Life (conversation)
Peter Rollins: The Practice of Christian Atheism: Church of Contradiction (presentation)
Christian Atheism Course Teaser (presentation)
Special thanks: Peter Rollins,
, Eliot Rosenstock of (), Kirsty Rosenstock, Daniel Coughlan (),, , Joris de Kelver, Crooijmans, Quinn Whelehan, Jason Bernstein ()Video 2: Philosophy Portal Year-In-Review (Part 2)
Alex Ebert: Metapolitics and Sexual Difference (conversation)
Alex Ebert: Metapolitical Reflections (presentation)
Daniel L. Garner: No Easy Roads and the Human Element (conversation)
Daniel L. Garner: The Right Power (presentation)
Daniel L. Garner, Pae Veo: Literature and Philosophy (conversation)
Thomas Hamelryck: Anthropology of Philosophy (conversation)
Thomas Hamelryck: Lacan’s Crazy Wisdom (presentation)
Mark Gerard Murphy: Addiction and Repetition (conversation)
Barry Taylor: Radical Theology (conversation)
Barry Taylor, Mark Gerard Murphy: Between Theology and Psychoanalysis (convo/presentation)
Christian Atheism Course Panel (Ivar Asid, Carmen Hannibal, LaVonne Chantal, Dylan Voisard, Cleo Kearns, Sahil Sasidharan): Philosophy and Religion (conversation)
Slavoj Zizek: Christian Atheism Q and A (Q and A)
Christian Atheism Course Teaser (presentation)
Special thanks:
, Daniel L. Garner (), Pae Veo, Thomas Hamelryck, Mark Gerard Murphy, Barry Taylor, Ivar Asid, Carmen Hannibal, , Dylan Voisard (), , Sahil Sasidharan, .Summary of the Year:
The Portal: The main introduction at Philosophy Portal this year was The Portal. The Portal is a live event space designed to bring philosophy to life in unique and special contexts, as well as introduce members to the diversity of thought and projects that currently exists in/as the liminal web. Each month we host four events — Concept Cave, The Edge, Thought Lab, and Real Talk — and each event space brings a unique chance to engage with fundamental concepts, explore the underconceptualised, learn with a thought leader, or get personal about your intellectual journey. The Portal has become a living thinking community that is creatively holding the speculative real of philosophical cognition today. Throughout the year we hosted many fantastic guests including:
- , Alenka Zupančič, Eliot Rosenstock (),, , , Andrew Davis, Ruth E. Kastner, , Barry Taylor, , Pamela von Sabljar, , Daniel L. Garner (), Michelle Garner (),, Greg Dember, Owen Cox (), Thomas Hamelryck, Paris Jayer, , , Daniel Fraga, , , , Mark Gerard Murphy, Genevieve Pleasure, Fotis Tsiroukis, , Olivier Auber, Naomi Roth, Katherine Everitt, Sinziana Ravini
Writing For (a) First Cause: we hosted a conference inspired by Lacan’s Écrits as well as the course taught on Lacan’s Écrits in 2023. This conference encouraged the development of both philosophical and theological ideas relevant to Freudo-Lacanian psychoanalysis. The subtitle “Language, History, Materialism: Analytic Truth of the Subject” was meant to emphasise some of the dimensions that are most relevant to the spirit of Lacan’s inquiry during the writing of the Écrits.
Special thanks to the presenters:
Crooijmans, Jason Bernstein (), , , Owen Cox (), Davide Pasti, Edie Hitchcock, , Daniel L. Garner (), Thomas Hamelryck, Russell Sbriglia, , Chetan Anand, Jyoti Dalal, Sahil Sasidharan, Kalyani Vaishnavi, James Wisdom (), , Nicole Foerster, , , Mark Gerard Murphy, Barry Taylor.
Hegel’s Philosophy of Right: we led the first course of the year built around Hegel’s Philosophy of Right. Consequently, this course attempted to teach the course of what represents Hegel’s mature notion of political philosophy, where his ideas on freedom meet their social context: property rights and relations, contracts and moral commitments, family life, and political-economy of world spirit.
Conversations inspired by Philosophy of Right course:
- Crooijmans
Philosophy of Right w/ Daniel L. Garner (
)Liberal Communism w/ Tony Chamas
Logic for the Global Brain: we released the third Philosophy Portal anthology inspired by the Science of Logic course in 2023, as well as the Logic for the Global Brain conference in 2023. The subtitle “Singular Universality as Perfect Opposition” is meant to signify the way in which we cannot think undialectically about either universality or singularity, but need to think about their dialectical unity. This is the core of the Science of Logic as it relates to Being, Essence, and Concept. The anthology offers an indispensable logic for the future of philosophy and community building, as well as artistic and religious projects, that may birth a culture for a truly global world.
Special thanks to the authors: Daniel L. Garner (
), , , , Max Macken, Crooijmans, Quinn Whelean, Jason Bernstein (), James Wisdom (), Raza Ali, , Peter Robinson, , , Pae Veo, , Thomas Winn.
Rosy Cross: we hosted a conference inspired by Hegel’s Philosophy of Right as well as the course taught on Hegel’s Philosophy of Right in 2024. This conference encouraged the thought of freedom and love in modern politics, and also orbiting questions of right and power, especially as all of these dimensions relate to family, community, and state activities in modern capitalism. The subtitle “Questions of Right, Power, Love, Freedom” signify the major metaphysical dimensions in need of basic rethinking today, and that will motivate the completion of the work that will eventually make up a new Philosophy Portal anthology.
Special thanks to the presenters:
Crooijmans, Eliot Rosenstock (), Sahil Sasidharan, Max Macken, James Wisdom (), , , , Joris de Kelver, Jason Bernstein (), Quinn Whelehan, Kalyani Vaishnavi, , Daniel L. Garner (), , .
Christian Atheism: the second course of the year was a much larger enterprise, and the first course at Philosophy Portal to build a course around a concept as opposed to a central philosophical text. The course developed the hypothesis that modern philosophy is, unconscious to itself, a Christian Atheist project. The course featured lectures on Kant’s transcendental idealism, Schelling’s Challenge of Revelation, Hegel’s Philosophy of Religion, Nietzsche Death of God/Eternal Return, Freud’s Deconstruction of Religion, Lacan’s Indestructible Religion, Altizer’s Christian Atheist Gospel, Žižek’s Christian Atheist Project, and Rollins’ Church of Contradiction. The course also features guest lectures from Mark Gerard Murphy, Barry Taylor,
, and Peter Rollins.Conversations inspired by Christian Atheism course:
Drive Denomination w/ Peter Rollins
Deconstructionology w/ Jim Palmer
Christ’s Body w/ Mark Gerard Murphy
Girard’s Anthropology of Religion w/ Thomas Hamelryck
Radical Theology w/ Barry Taylor
Christian Atheism w/ Tony Chamas
Christian Atheism w/ Daniel L. Garner (
)- Crooijmans
- ()
Philosophy Portal’s YouTube channel remained primarily dedicated to hosting long-form conversations with liminal web thinkers inspired by book projects or other long-form projects that require philosophical dialogue and speculation.
Subject Lessons w/ Russell Sbriglia
Algorithmic Desire w/ Matthew Flisfeder
Negativity in Psychoanalysis w/
, Mark Gerard MurphyDecline of the Paternal Function w/
Belonging Again (Part 2) w/ Daniel L. Garner (
)Theory Underground American Idiots Tour w/
, Bryce ,Immediacy: Or, The Style of Too Late Capitalism w/ Anna Kornbluh
The Torch w/
Metal Analysis w/ David Burke
Deleuzian-Žižekian Bridge Concepts w/
The Chronic Crisis of American Democracy w/
Infinite Greed w/ Adrian Johnston
Žižek’s Clinic and the Ego’s Hyperstate w/ Eliot Rosenstock (
)Hungry Ghosts in the Machine w/ Mike Watson
True Infinity and the Work of Love w/
CrooijmansPsychocinema w/
Drive Denomination w/ Peter Rollins
Christ’s Body w/ Mark Gerard Murphy
Girard’s Anthropology of Religion w/ Thomas Hamelryck
Radical Theology w/ Barry Taylor
Hegel in Vertigo w/ Katherine Everitt
Say Hello to Metamodernism w/ Greg Dember
Love and the Market w/ Rob Faure Walker
Return to Plato? w/ Dylan Shaul
Khaos Project w/ Raphaël Liogier
The Living Contradiction w/ Quinn Whelehan
- , Bruce Alderman
Special thanks also to those who have hosted conversations with me throughout the year, including:
- of SenseSpace (Dying Into Man)
- of (Transhumanism and Hyperhumanism)
- Crooijmans (Philosophy of Right)
Daniel L. Garner of
(Philosophy of Right)Tony Chamas (Liberal Communism)
of SenseSpace and (The Resonant Man)- of (Capitalism and Belonging)
- of (Beyond Left/Right)
- (The Future of Philosophy)
Tony Chamas (Christian Atheism)
Daniel L. Garner of
(Christian Atheism)- of (Is The Earth Enough?)
- Crooijmans (Christian Atheism)
- (Systems, Subjects)
- of (Pain, Pleasure & Libido)
Christian Baxter (Christian Atheism and the End of Protestantism)
Daniel Coughlan
(Questions of Christian Atheist Subtle Body)- of (Anthropocene, Global Brain, Noosphere)
Finally, looking towards the New Year, there are many projects and ideas taking me into 2025. However, the three most practical projects that have a concrete schedule and public release include a new course on Deleuze and Analysis taught by Prof.
; The Portal @ Wake which is a festival led by Peter Rollins, and which Philosophy Portal will be co-hosting events, converations, workshops, and more; and finally a renovation of The Portal that will aim to lead month-long collaborations with organisations and collectives designed to offer a more comprehensive exploration of key concepts and projects in the liminal web.
Learn more: Deleuze and Analysis
Learn more: The Portal @ Wake
Learn more: The Portal
Thanks for having me, Cadell! Always a pleasure to visit The Portal :)
Great stuff, Cadell. Excited for the year ahead!